Chinese internet giant saw net income in the first quarter more than double
year-on-year to $1.35bn

Alibaba, the Chinese internet giant so big it dwarves even Amazon, stunned investors on Tuesday night as it emerged that it has grown by more than two thirds in the past year alone.

The results immediately stoked excitement about its plans to float on the New York Stock Exchange – an initial public offering tipped to be the largest the world has ever seen.

The Hangzhou business, whose empire spans the Tmall online retailer and Taobao, China’s equivalent to eBay, saw its net income in the first quarter more than double year-on-year to $1.35bn. Revenues jumped 66pc to $3.1bn.

Sales were helped by an increase in the number of people shopping on smartphones, as well as heavy advertising around “Singles Day”, a celebration in November when single people are encouraged to buy gifts for themselves.

Those figures far outstripped forecasts from analysts, who had believed that Alibaba’s growth was slowing. They swiftly revised upwards their estimates of how much the company might be worth, from an already bullish $150bn to as much as $175bn.

The sprawling Chinese company, founded by Jack Ma, does not disclose its financial results in full, but the headline numbers were published in documents filed by Yahoo!, the Californian internet business that owns a 24pc stake in the Chinese company.

Sam Hamadeh, founder of PrivCo, a New York research firm that studies privately-held companies, said that Yahoo!’s stake in the business was now worth $42bn – more than Yahoo!’s entire market capitalisation.

Yahoo!’s own first-quarter results were broadly in line with expectations, but Alibaba’s performance sent Yahoo’s shares surging as much as 11pc in after-hours trading in New York.

The company can expect a major windfall when Alibaba floats later this year. However, it won’t necessarily be plain sailing.

The Chinese company has delivered impressive results but will still have to fight against growing concerns that we could be caught in a technology bubble, like the one that preceded the 2000 dotcom crash.

Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, will be first out of the traps. The business is due to price its own initial public offering on Wednesday and start trading on Thursday.